Abstract
Commercial PZT powders were processed with various levels of silver (I) oxide powder and the effects on sintering behaviour, mechanical and electrical properties analysed. It was found that silver oxide additions significantly accelerate the sintering behaviour of soft doped PZT, but not hard doped PZT. The resulting metallic silver behaves as a heterovalent acceptor ion dopant, thereby depressing the soft piezoelectric properties such as coupling coefficients and dielectric constant in the poled direction. Above the saturation point of Ag in PZT, however, other effects begin to occur, resulting in a partial recovery of the dielectric constant. Silver additions were also found to increase the fracture strength of PZT, and values of over 170 MPa were measured. With sufficient additions the material formed after sintering was shown to be conductive.
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